e-Talk Radio: Paulk, Mark, 28 November 2000

maturity model must be for those companies like Microsoft that are just stamping out the same thing over and over again. We're artists. How can we possibly standardize? What's your answer to them?

Mark: Everybody always says "We're different". It's almost a universal comment that people make. And you will sometimes, you'll hear people saying that: You know, I'm different from everybody else in the world. You know, when Michael Fagan talks about the optimal rate for inspecting software code, I'm different. I can inspect mine in order utter of magnitude quicker than Fagan recommends. And then you start going through a process improvement, things such as the personal software process training or something like that. And what you find out is, when I start measuring my actual performance, I'm just like everybody else. In other words, the good engineering techniques, the good management techniques that work for F16 or Microsoft or anybody else are the same kinds of things that have been done over and over again. And when I refuse to take advantage of those ideas, I'm hurting myself.

There are differences. That's certainly true. But good engineering and good management practices are good engineering and management practices. And a lot of the things that you've seen, extreme programming and lightweight methodologies and things of that nature, are in many ways repackaging of ideas that have been presented as good engineering and management practices many times before over the years.

Pages

About the author

Carol A. Dekkers is President of Quality Plus Technologies, Inc., a management consulting firm specializing in creating peace of mind for companies who want to improve their software processes. Software measurement, software quality, process improvement, requirements, and software sizing (using function point analysis, as an example) are a few of the Quality Plus areas of specialization.